Employee Engagement: Your Team Doesn’t Need Another Meeting

What if the problem with employee engagement isn't your team—but the way you're asking them to spend their time together?We spend a huge part of our work lives in meetings.Team meetings. Check-ins. Retreats. Workshops. Offsites. Strategy sessions.But how many of those gatherings actually change anything?In Episode 44 of The Purpose Profit Shift, Rachel Bernier-Green sits down with Tes Cohen, Founder and Chief Gathering Officer of Gather Better, for a conversation about employee engagement, team meetings, workplace culture, reflective leadership, productivity, and what it actually takes to bring people together with intention.Tes has spent more than 15 years gathering and facilitating across industries, organizations, and even continents—from facilitating women's empowerment trainings as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Costa Rica to leading an 80-person CSR summit for Gap Inc. Her work today through Gather Better helps purpose-driven organizations rethink the meetings, retreats, workshops, and gatherings that have become such a routine part of how we work. In this episode, Tes challenges one of the most common assumptions in the workplace: just because we've always held a meeting a certain way doesn't mean we should keep doing it. When people dread the meeting on their calendar—or walk away wondering why it couldn't have been an email—that may be a sign that it's time to question the meeting itself. Rachel and Tes also explore why reflection may be one of the most overlooked leadership skills. From debriefing after meetings to giving employees room to evaluate what's working, Tes argues that slowing down long enough to reflect isn't wasted time. It can be the difference between a team that's simply functioning and one that's actually thriving. The conversation also gets into four-day workweeks, no-meeting days, productivity, rest, AI in the workplace, and the pressure to constantly do more. Rachel and Tes challenge the idea that more hours automatically mean better work—and discuss what can happen when leaders become more intentional about how their teams spend their time. And when it comes to retreats and offsites, Tes makes the case that the gathering itself isn't the finish line. The real question is what happens after everyone goes home—and whether anything actually changes as a result. IN THIS EPISODE01:04 – Meet Tes Cohen & Gather Better02:23 – Why Gather Better Is Changing How It Works03:22 – “Lightning Bolt” Work vs. Lasting Change06:11 – How Tes Turned Gathering Into a Business08:04 – The Problem With Back-to-Back Meetings08:20 – The Meeting That Should Have Been an Email09:26 – Why Every Meeting Needs a Clear “Why”10:17 – Building Connection Before Your Team Needs It11:59 – Could Your Company Use a Meeting Audit?13:48 – Why Reflective Leadership Matters16:25 – How Better Meetings Changed Rachel's Team20:12 – The Difference Between Functioning and Thriving27:11 – Can 15 Minutes of Reflection Improve Performance?31:17 – No-Meeting Days & Designing Work Differently33:15 – The Case for a Four-Day Workweek36:40 – Rest, Leadership & Rethinking How We Work51:32 – Why Reflective Practice Is a Core Leadership Skill52:00 – What AI Can't Replace in the Workplace1:00:12 – Tes's New Meeting Audit Concept1:00:33 – How to Give Your Meetings a “Gathering Glow Up”1:02:31 – Why the Real Work Happens After the OffsiteFOLLOW TES COHEN & GATHER BETTER💼 Tes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tescohen/FOLLOW RACHEL BERNIER-GREEN & THRYVO🌐 Website: https://jointhryvo.com📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jointhryvo💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/jointhryvo🎧 Listen to The Purpose Profit Shift on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.#PurposeProfitShift #EmployeeEngagement #TeamBuilding #WorkplaceCulture #Leadership #TeamMeetings #EmployeeEngagementStrategies #ReflectiveLeadership #WorkplaceProductivity #TeamCommunication #FourDayWorkWeek #FutureOfWork